Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Awhile ago Noism's started a little project to help people be a better GM. EDIT: I am apparently quite ignorant, apparently it is CKutalik. This immediately lead to Alexis decrying such an endevour as garbage. To a degree he was right, a few tidbits won't help you be a better GM.

But then Alexis came out with something brutally honest, he has no idea to be a better GM. This is a good start. Often Alexis has railed about people not "getting it", and often this is when people are trying to help him (or at least in my case) be a better GM by looking at the problem with a proper critical mindset.

In this case, deciding what is a "better" GM. That is the most important step and the hardest for people to do. This sounds easy, but let me explain.

The first thing you have to do is decide what your goal is. Often people jump in "To ensure people have fun!", Stuart has famously pointed out the illogical nature of that question. The point of games is usually fun. That isn't quite it though (at least from my point of view). The problem I have with that viewpoint is that people don't truly accept that as their goal. They draw an artificial line and say "The point is to have fun, while playing an RPG in the following manner". That doesn't work, if the goal is "to have fun" take the basic consideration of playing an RPG out of this. Would you and your group have more fun playing Super Smash Brothers? If so play that. Fun is pretty vague and encompasses a large area.

I started with a different objective when working on Neoclassical Geek Revival. My goal was "Keep 4-6 people actively thinking for an entire evening with as little downtime as possible". I now had a goal and could objectively become better at being a GM. I have not found a better method to do this than an RPG, so then I started customizing the RPG to meet those needs. Each change is weighed against "does this keep people actively thinking for a longer period of the game". I will often go through several sub-questions that lead me back to this statement: "Does this reduce downtimes between players", "does this let everyone participate in the encounter", "does this encourage creative thinking", or "does this encourage decisions over problems".

Am I a great GM? Probably not. But now with each tip I read, and each thought I have, I can now see if I am becoming a better or worse GM and why. A consistent problem I see in rules development or GM techniques is failure to ask "Why?", and then when getting an answer to ask "Why?" again until you get back to your goal. If you can't get back to your goal by asking "Why?" like a precocious toddler then you are not becoming a better GM.

Do you have a goal with GMing? If so, post it below and then periodically look back at the game you just ran and start weighing your actions against that goal.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Looking at my own ability to publish a book, made me think of the death of large scale publishing. The number of big publishers is dying and I think a good portion of it is the ability of people to publish to PDF in unlimited numbers for basically $0. Anyone can take that PDF and go to their local Staples/Kinko's and have the book of their choice, no matter how obscure. The finer details of this democratization of print in the RPG industry (a different thing than the RPG hobby) aren't what I am looking to get into.

What I am thinking about is the upcoming unfortunate death of the miniatures industry. 3D home printing is at its infancy, its actual use at this point is pretty slim. But, for our own little commercial perspective it may have a big impact.

1.) The MakerBot is at a price point that a tech early adopter could afford one in their own home

2.) The RPG market has a large overlap with the tech early adopter market

3.) The MakerBot is really only useful for making small static plastic statues

4.) That is a miniature.

I can very quickly see someone starting to make their own custom plastic miniatures for games like Warhammer or Warhammer 40k where the miniatures are EXPENSIVE (I have a large Genestealer Cult, Orc/Goblin and Ork armies in hibernation) making their own miniatures that are iconic. "Look at my custom Chaos Daemon Prince"! and then someone will put the electronic file on-line and others will make their own copies. Then someone will make a 3-d scan of some trademark miniatures, illegal or not, and a whole counterfeit market will open up. How will you tell a real plastic ork from a MakerBot plastic ork after 3 layers of acrylic paint?

So how long do you think before the miniature market collapses from $10 for a plastic dwarf to $5 for a template file made by a hobbyist on RPG now?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

So one of the blogs I have always had fun reading is Timeshadow's blog "The Grand Tapestry". It has featured fairly heavily a game and setting "URUTSK: World of Mystery". Many of you who read me no doubt also read her blog.

Perhaps also like me you had always been a little confused about the nature of her game. I would read her posts and get bits of understanding about specific mechanics, and little "factoids" about her setting.. but the term "World of Mystery" was pretty apt. I couldn't quite get my head around the entire setting. It had a very Tekumel vibe to me, not in the specific's (I've never played Tekumel) but in the familiar story about how daunting it appears to jump into said setting.

She has recently been running G+ games and was kind enough to send me a little info packet and listen in to a game in progress. After reading the sampler in full and then actually listening to the game play it finally clicked. Many of the finer setting points still elude me, but not to a point I wouldn't be able to play.

If there is anyone else who was like me that just couldn't quite plug the pieces and mechanics together I would suggest the following analogy of the feeling I got. Still some Tekumel for the level of detail and depth of the setting, but throw in the vibe you get from some Planet of the Apes, Plymouth Rock and Cadillac and Dinosaurs, mixed with a hefty dose of hard sci-fi. I would not describe it in any way as a "Gonzo" setting, though I have no doubt you could run it as such. If you did run it as a "Gonzo" setting like Thundarr I think you would lose a lot from it. Listening to it played straight was pretty inspiring, all of the little touches (like naming) really bring it together as a very immersive setting.

If you get the opportunity to play in a game I would highly recommend it.

Friday, August 26, 2011

So you want to get one of the shiny hard cover copies of Neoclassical Geek Revival but you missed out on the original printing (now sold out)? Well I can still make additional printings, or at the very least you may have a complimentary PDF of the rules.

If I receive serious interest of at least 10 interested parties I will make another run. This will be the same high quality hard cover binding with gold stamp, silk ribbons and linen pages. It will also have an additional stamping on the front cover. High quality is a must on my part.

I am Canadian so I cannot run a kickstarter, instead I shall rely on an honour system. If you wish a copy, please post a comment here and email me at liberinterdico (from google's mail provider). When I receive your email I will immediately send you a PDF, whether or not enough interest for a second printing occurs.

Books will continue to be available at cost (about $28 CDN) and shipping on top of that (usually about $12 CDN in North America).

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

So the title may be a little biased here, but after expecting all this gloom and doom about the movie I thought this was going to be garbage.

The movie was great! I mean seriously, its a great little action flick with some descent fantasy elements, maybe a bit TOO much nudity ..but that too has a certain gritty high school charm. I think I can gauge if you will like this movie based on if you liked another movie.

Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman. Did you like this action fest movie? It strayed completely away from the source material to a point where the only similarity was that the character was named Van Helsing and he fought Dracula. He also hunted down Dr.Jekyll and was a Vatican Assassin (we can only assume now, he was also a warlock due to his super age). He teamed up with Frankenstein's monster and became a wolfman to kill Dracula.

AND IT WAS AWESOME!

Maybe its just me, but I don't expect Hollywood to EVER make a faithful recreation of a book. Movies like "The Watchmen" or "Lord of the Rings" are rare, and even then they change major plot points, ones that are in many ways critical to the plot.

So if you are on the fence about Conan due to bad reviews, ask yourself if you liked Van Helsing. If the answer is yes, go see Conan. If the answer was no, then don't.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

If you are interested please click here and follow the instructions (ie, send me an email).

There are a few people who have asked about getting a copy before I put up the post with how to get one. If you are one of those people and would still like a copy at cost + shipping let me know as I am down to my last copy.

Friday, August 19, 2011

I was spurred to write this post dealing with a common issue when I read that Alexis over the Tao of D&D has a problem. He wants programmers to build him things but they just don't do it the way he wants. This he see's as a flaw among all graphic designers and programmers.

Shall I tell you first what I hate equally about visual artists and computer programmers? It is quite simple. They are virtually useless to me.

Now, this strikes me as an odd thing to try to pull off to an RPG crowd as both programmers and visual artists are quite heavily represented among RPG players. But the crux comes down to a problem I see all the time as a contract programmer. Best summed up by two contradicting statements:

1.

... and everywhere computer techies are the same. You have to beat them and beat them to make them produce what you want them to produce ... and even then it doesn't work.

2.

SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT HOW YOU THINK IT SHOULD WORK. In this particular case, given that you don't know a fucking thing about what I'd like to do with this environment, just make it work like I want it to work.

In this particular case, I am going to write the music. You're just going to play it.

Hey, it won't be that hard. Musicians play music written by other people all the time.

Did you catch the problem?

When you get a musician to play a song you wrote. You have to write it as sheet music.

You can't hand a musician something like the following:

Yet.. this is what programmers tend to get. Sheet music contains a ton of technical detail about how EXACTLY you want the musician to perform the music. You don't write "A really high note" or a "really low note" or "really fast". You put specific notes, specific timing. You specify exactly what you want within the allowable framework (ie, no making up new notes).

If a musician tries to play along and perform a scribbled napkin of noise and poorly communicated gibberish, it will end up as Alexis is forced to deal with:

... and everywhere computer techies are the same. You have to beat them and beat them to make them produce what you want them to produce ... and even then it doesn't work.

It won't work; it won't be like you envisioned (if its even possible at all), and it will be garbage.

Like sheet music for a musician there are specifications for code and applications you can provide to a developer. Learn them or learn to trust their interpretation of what you want. If they don't do what you want it may not be that they don't understand, it may be that you don't understand what you are asking for cannot be done in that manner.

But you may ask, why should I learn to write their technical specs? If you want to design a system and have others build it for you, you must. This is no different then learning to write sheet music if you want to write a song for others to perform.

I mention this because, given my history in the gaming industry, I am often asked for advice (or help) in building gaming applications. If you are serious about building a piece of gaming software you must learn one of three things:

i) How to write software (most difficult and most control over work)

ii) How to write technical specs (middle of both)

iii) How to deal with a developer's interpretation of your idea (easiest but most frustrating).

When you are looking to hire a developer you have two choices:

A) Gaming developers as a hobby (Grab bag of competence/passion and limited to no control)

B) Professional developer who probably doesn't care about gaming (able to select competence VS price ratio, and contractually obligated control). Note that option 2 is expensive. If someone provides better service than what you can get for free (which could be quite high in quality), they charge out the nose. They will almost certainly charge more per hour than you earn (statistically) and are unlikely to cut you any slack.

This information I imagine is useful to any trades person you are seeking (including Illustrators I would imagine, but any readers who do graphic work can correct me or write their own post for how to choose an illustrator, I will link it here).

I highly recommend you think about this before starting the next Obsidian Portal. This something that comes up a lot, not just in RPG circles but in anything creative (not just artistic, but new business ventures as well). This is something you need to understand before you invest money in development work.

And yes, I will build your game aide for you. I will do so as option B. If I am willing to work as option A, I will find you and offer to work on your awesome idea (and that does happen). Please don't assume an entire trade is incompetent, that is almost never the case and definitely not for one that needs results for pay.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I will be GMing a Neoclassical Geek Revival game at 11:30pm Berlin time/5:30 pm Eastern Standard this Thursday. Bring a 1st-3rd level PC and I can be reached under the name Liber Interdico at Gee Mayl dawt calm.

There are currently 3 extra copies of Neoclassical Geek Revival from the 0ed printing. That is all there will ever be in that printing. Future printings will be slightly different with an extra stamping.

If you would like a copy of Neoclassical Geek Revival (and are serious about it) post a comment here listing your interest and then send me an email (liber interdico at google's email service, I trust you can figure that out).

I am selling them at cost as I am not interested in making a buck off this.

If there is interest greater than the three remaining 0edition books, I will make another printing once at least 15 people sign on. Should some massive economy of scale allow me to get lower prices than was charged to people, I will take any profits and dump them in the nearest Tim Horton's Camp Foundation box. This may seem very lax and unprofessional, but I am not interested in having a profession in the RPG industry, this is purely a hobby to me.

If you would like a copy of the PDF to either go with the rules or to preview, email me as well.

Damage Reduction = Do you separate out Armour bonus from shield or agility bonus? Its that.

Presence = Are you a bard? Its what your attack bonus would be as a fighter. Not a bard? Its 1/3rd your level. Add your Charisma bonus (if that exists in your system).

Stealth Modifier = Couple of options. If you are not a thief, its 1/3rd your level. Are you "Thief Like", ie a bard or ranger or something? 2/3rd your level. Are you a thief? Either its your level, or take the average bonus for thief skills (if its a %, then +1 per 5%) and that is your stealth mod. Add your wisdom bonus if your system has one.

Spells!

NCGR has alternate spell systems so just use yours.

If you don't have anything to cram in "?" consider them 10.

Specific things to Neoclassical Geek Revival:

Fate Points: These can be cashed in to re-roll a die, or regain some Luck Points (ie HP). Think of them like Benny's. You get them by being awesome.

Saving Throws: You have to declare you are doing something to get a saving throw. Could be as simple as "I Look away", or "I jump out of the way". If your system has more formalized saves just pick one that is most appropriate.

Lucky Number: Pick one between 1 and 20. If you roll it on a d20 announce it.

Monday, August 15, 2011

So first off I want to warn anyone who still hasn't gotten their copy, that this post is full of spoilers that may ruin the excitement of you receiving your book. Stop reading now if you want the surprise.

So, Time for Spoilers!

So at long last Piecemeal has been released. Its fully functional and edited, formatted and all the rest as best as a one man show can work it. As such it was time to drop its working title of "Piecemeal".

Because I am going to be honest here. It is probably going to just sit on your gaming shelf, and I am cool with that. I just want it to look as damn nice on your gaming shelf as possible, here are a few more shots.

I want to note why I decided to go with the physical construction I did. This is an heirloom quality book. This is gold stamped tanotex hardcover. Each copy has a silk ribbon and banding to act as bookmark. There is no colour in the book, it is purely gray scale. The artwork inside only acts as title pages and contains classic works. I did not choose Public Domain work because it was free, I picked them because they evoked a timeless image (at least to me) that went with the gaming I like. There are works from Dorre, Waterhouse, Rackham, DaVinci, and others among the artwork. The pages themselves are printed on a sturdy linen, both the durability and because of the tactile feel. Quite frankly I wanted something nice for a book, not just nice for an RPG.

This is a book that will hold up through the years, and will look great doing so. If you are going to buy another game to just sit on your shelf: buy a game that will look GOOD on your shelf.

I also went with this aesthetic because I have the style of my grandparents. I like styles that have proven themselves through more than one generation and look just as impressive now as then. RPG books (as the OSR community can attest) will be kept and used for decades, I didn't want something that would look tacky 10 years from now when art styles change. When I partake in "Read an RPG book in public week" I want to hold a book that oozes class. I want to hold a book that looks like I am a self-absorbed philosopher out to impress gullible university students. Not because I am actually smarter or better than anyone, but because I want to show absolutely without a doubt, that this is not just a child's game. This to me is a book that says "I don't care how dorky you thought this was in High School, this is an adult hobby played by successful professionals, war heroes, mothers, fathers, grandparents and a whole pile of other pillars of the community and they are allowed to have nice things".

Is this secret gamer shame or wrath? Probably, but bite me. There is a very large portion of the population that see's RPG players as these guys and it impacts peoples careers and livelihoods when they get pigeonholed into these false stereotypes. If you think I am really out to lunch, wander over to the escapist and tell him to pack it up since his work is done.

In the mean time I feel I have at least done my part, I have made a book that if nothing else looks nice. Other people have made games available in nice professional bindings like this before, this isn't groundbreaking. What I am doing however is ONLY releasing Neoclassical Geek Revival in this style. There will be PDF's, released with the incredibly impossible to police requirement that you not make a hard copy. For physical releases of this book, I intend only to have high quality books made.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Now this is a topic I have touched on briefly before but two of my favourite bloggers are discussing the issue lately (Zak and Noisms) and I thought I would chime back in on what I consider an important gaming topic.

The main issue in a game like D&D is that dogs become utterly useless pretty quickly and die too easily. Is this any different than people? Well that depends...

So why can't a dog gain levels and have a class? Don't just go right to "Warrior" either. In my most recently completed campaign one of the bard's had a dog for one of his henchmen. The dog was part priest. It would howl and bay to drive off the undead, a turn undead (equivalent) in a party with no cleric was quite useful.

It shouldn't be hard to picture a dog Paladin, I mean..all dogs do go to heaven. What about a dog ranger or druid? A heroic level 7 dog shouldn't be beyond the realm of imagination either. What real logic could you apply to a human (hairless ape) gaining increased power and levels that you could not apply to a dog.

And don't leave this to just dogs, perhaps look to Lovecraft and have a kingdom of cats. Mr.Whiskers is an NPC just itching for use after all. And who wouldn't like a high level horse?

Short Notice: Is anyone interested in playing as part of ConstantCon this evening at 6:30pm Eastern Standard Time? 12:30:00 p.m Berlin Time. Being sent the quick start rules to first dice rolls of the adventure should be 15 minutes or less.

A shift in the flow of a river starts to lower a bogs water level (just go with it). Local looters have set up shop in the local frontier village on rumours of sunken treasure and long buried tombs. Which is great because you have some debts that need paying..now..

Short Notice: Is anyone interested in playing as part of ConstantCon this evening at 5:30pm Eastern Standard Time? 11:30:00 p.m Berlin Time. Being sent the quick start rules to first dice rolls of the adventure should be 15 minutes or less.

A shift in the flow of a river starts to lower a bogs water level (just go with it). Local looters have set up shop in the local frontier village on rumours of sunken treasure and long buried tombs. Which is great because you have some debts that need paying..now..

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Just a note, to hit the next bulk order bracket I ordered 4 additional copies. So if anyone wants a copy who has not already ordered one please let me know. Failing that I will probably give a few promo copies to the ones going out to the stores.

I'll be putting out some photos and mailing things off soon. Still haven't cracked the box so hopefully all is well.

Edit 1)

Got a chance to open the box and look in, fantastic. Oh sure I noticed a few technical things I would improve in future printings dealing with things I was completely ignorant off (paper grain, ink heat tolerances etc) but its overall great. So far I am still getting feedback on if people want pictures or to be surprised until they receive them (or at least a few days after I mail them out).

Now Alexis over the Tao of D&D has an interesting take on something I said in regards to a post over at The Grand Tapestry.Specifically in regards to an interview with Harlan Ellison in which he rants about people who offer work (in this case writing) for nothing and in doing so devalue his own work in the field.

This is something I am personally familiar with as I work in computer code.The number of volunteers doing open source work or free (garbage) coding for some start up doomed to fail causes the same problems, best exemplified by this hilarious post.Similar situations are encountered by anyone who does for a career what others dabble in as a hobby.Artists know this, sex workers know this, writers know this, game developers know this, sport players know this, and everyone applying for a job someone else is willing to intern for knows this.And those working in the industry always have this inane need to rant about how people need to stop donating work and charge for it so that everyone can get fair value.“Stop posting art for free on DeviantArt!”, “Stop submitting to periodicals for free!”, “Don’t put your amateur porn on the internet!”, “Don’t release your OSR rules for free!”, “Don’t play on the company baseball team for free!” and “demand pay as an intern!”.All of it is garbage by people who don’t understand the nature of the trade they are in.If you are in one of these jobs you need to understand that people donate work because they want something other than money.Developers love to tinker, writers want to write one immortal work (money be damn), amateur porn stars get a thrill of exhibitionism and interns want to pad their resume.

Deal with it or find a career no one wants to do for free. Its part and parcel of the trade and no one is going to pay you for what others will do (and often better) for free.I get paid quite handsomely for my developer work and contractor work because I am damn good at what I do. I also lucked out and met the right contacts.If you aren’t lucky or skilled and usually both then you need to find a new trade if you want to make money.Just because some people get paid for baseball doesn’t mean I should get paid for being in the junior rec league.If I am not good enough to make it to the big leagues I am getting jack shite.If you write some Kirk/Dr. Who fan-fiction don’t expect a pay check.Also know that even if you write really good Kirk/Dr. Who fiction that the number of people writing crappy Kirk/Dr. Who fan-fiction will depreciate the demand (and thus price) for your work.If you can’t hack it find a different career path.

The second most irritating part?Alexis himself points this same issue out over at his other blog the Pegasus Rider“ I have long said about agents that the reality is that you have to be the married spouse of some brother or sister of the Agent's girlfriend or bookie. That's how it seems to work. I've had some very nasty dealings with agents over the last fifteen years and except for really needing one, I really hate that I really need one.”

The most irritating part?

“But nothing tops the truly stupid comment left by Zzarchov, which I want to be sure I copy here so he can't delete it there. Here it is in its entirety:”

He also points out often “miss the point”, which I will use this post to make clear my position on that since it is unlikely he would allow me to comment further on his post.I do get the points he is often trying to make, I also realise its often wrong.Case in point his long rambling post about how guns wouldn’t exist, completely ignoring an important fact.It is bullshit. Alexis does not want guns because he declared with GM fiat “No Guns” even though in even a pseudo historical world they would exist.Without guns and artillery the time period he purports to play in and be an expert in (demanding our respect on the matter) would be so radically different (from everything involving military organizations to the architecture of new towns) as to be unrecognizable unless you just flat out say “Guys I don’t want guns in my campaign, can we roll with it?”.Which is a fine answer, but just say the real answer instead reacting with such indignation if we call shenanigans on his flawed reasoning on why guns shouldn’t exist.

I don’t care for his implication that I said people shouldn't be paid for good work, as I charge for good work and pay (or offer to) others for their good work. Those who have worked with me can attest to this.What I don’t charge for is garbage.Notice how my RPG is free? Physical copies are sold at cost because my work in the rules and layout and public domain art has no real value.Now future versions have better layout, but that work isn’t mine but someone I received help from (and offered a sizeable sum of cash for said help).

Should Alexis be paid for his work? His economic system seems to be built with a great deal of skill, millions of lines of calculations by his estimate. Let’s compare that to my economic systemshall we?

“So just how much is a gold coin worth?If 2 gold coins buy a nice dagger that’s fine, but is a gold coin a lot of money or not?

To answer this question, all prices are displayed in ‘$’ giving an approximate modern day comparison how much that is to an average person. If you are trying to think of the price of an item on the fly, compare it to a modern equivalent device.A horse is much like a car, a draft horse like a transport truck.A dagger might be closer to a handgun, a sword an assault rifle.”

Should I expect money for this?God no.Should Alexis expect payment for his system?He thinks so and I agree.His economic system took skill and effort; mine took 10 minutes and hand waving.But I think any implication that I should not release my work because it will negatively impact the value of my work is garbage.I don’t want to see people stop the DIY attitude because those up high and mighty declare you shouldn’t release things for free.It is your time and effort, so you can charge what you want for it including nothing. This grates on me as it is not an attack over just RPG's and other (in the grande scheme of things) unimportant matters, but over my professional conduct.

Friday, August 5, 2011

The Zero Edition of Piecemeal has been shipped off to the binders. In about a week I should be mailing off hard cover copies to those lucky recipients. I also printed off an extra handful to fit into the next order size category and get a discount. It only ended up costing me a few extra bucks when the discount on existing orders was compared against the additional books.

This means I do have a small handful of additional books available if anyone is looking to order one.

Monday, August 1, 2011

To coincide with the print release of Piecemeal I have created a set of quick start rules (still going through edits now) to give a 10 minute start time to the game for a new player. The idea is an informal document under 15 pages where a player can read them, sit down and start to play. Finer details may be lost, but the player can follow whats going on and contribute as long as 1 person has the full rules, ideally the GM.

When the print release does come out, I will be hosting a few games on Google+ if anyone is interested.